Malawi to refund World Bank ‘mismanaged’ K43 million

Malawi government is at risk of refunding the World Bank money amounting to K43 Million which is reported to have been mismanaged.

World Bank provided the Malawi government with the funding for the purpose of carrying out Public Works Programmes in two districts of Dowa and Phalombe.

While confirming the fears of paying back the money, Ministry of Finance, Economic Planning and Development spokesperson Nations Msowoya told Weekend Nation that the Bank is yet to officially raise the demand.

“The World Bank is yet to officially raise the demand for the refund but it was raised at the programme’s coordination level that we will have to repay. It’s an automatic query. We had a deadline of 31 October to provide the missing supporting documentation through the councils that we have failed to do and we now have to refund the money as agreed,” Msowoya is quoted as saying.

He was however non-committal to comment on whether the money was stolen or not since some of the necessary documents are still missing.

“We do not have any evidence at the moment that the funds were stolen or not. The query came in first because we did not submit documentation showing how the money was used either receipts or documents, indicating that people who worked under the public works programme were paid through signed payment sheets. Now we have passed the deadline in which our colleagues requested us to submit the information we demanded” said Msowoya.

Finance Minister Goodall Gondwe has since described the development as unfortunate and worrisome.

He said the situation the government is in at the moment is not supposed to waste any resources.

Meanwhile, a commission of inquiry is to be set to investigate the matter.

This comes at a time the Malawi government is trying to win back donor confidence and trust which was lost following the plundering of government resources at the Capital Hill in the famous cash gate scandal.

Billions of Kwachas were squandered and some of the people involved are currently answering charges of theft and money laundering.